Energetic neutral atom imaging at low altitudes from the Swedish microsatellite Astrid: Images and spectral analysis

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research 1999-02, Vol.104 (A2), p.2367-2379
• Main Authors: Brandt, Pontus C:son, Barabash, Stas, Norberg, Olle, Lundin, Rickard, Roelof, Edmond C., Chase, Christopher J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Physics of the magnetosphere; Trapped particles
• ISSN: 0148-0227; 2156-2202
• DOI: 10.1029/98JA02715

Observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENA) in the energy range 26–52 keV are reported from four occasions during geomagnetically disturbed periods. The data were acquired by the ENA imager flown on the Swedish microsatellite Astrid in a 1000 km circular orbit with 83° inclination. The ENA imager separates charged particles from neutrals through an electrostatic deflection system in the energy range between 0.1 and 114 keV. ENA images obtained from vantage points in the polar cap and in the afternoon magnetic local time (MLT) hours looking into the antisunward hemisphere show intense ENA fluxes (∼ 104 (cm2 sr s)−1 over 26–37 keV) coming from the dusk region and low altitudes (∼300 km). The morphology shows no relation to local magnetic field excluding the possibility of charged particle detection. It is concluded that the source of these ENAs are precipitating/mirroring ions from the ring current/trapped radiation interacting with the exobase on auroral L‐shells and in the dusk region. The observed ENA fluxes show a relation with Kp and Dst geomagnetic indices. The observed ENA spectrum from a geomagnetic storm on February 8, 1995, is investigated in more detail and compared to the parent ion spectrum obtained by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Project (DMSP) satellite, F12, during the same period on L=6±2 around dusk. The observed ENA spectral slope is used to derive the parent ion spectral temperature. The derived ion temperatures range is 3.0–6.0 keV for H and 4.5–8.5 keV for O. The higher of these ion temperatures comes closest in agreement to the extrapolated DMSP spectrum leading us to favor O over H as the species of the detected ENAs. It is shown that the detected ENAs must have been produced at L ≥6 to reach the detector without atmospheric attenuation and that the main energy dependence of the ENA spectrum, apart from the parent ion spectrum, is governed by the energy dependence of the charge exchange cross section between ions and exospheric oxygen.